After a saga of missed flights, lost passports and re arranging of Visas my brother Joe is finally back from Mumbai and has his feet planted firmly on Aussie soil! I don't think his pregnant wife Rhonda will let him take any more business trips in the near future. His little boy Cian missed him too (Hide his passport Rhonda!)

He was due to land at 5am and had only one night here at Lake Macquarie before planning to head back to their Sydney home early tomorrow morning. I was really delighted to hear that they wanted to join us for one last mega family dinner at our house to catch up. I was up until 11pm last night chopping veggies and setting the table because I had a 6am start this morning for work. After a long and dramatic day at the hospital I picked the kids up from school and we came home to start cooking dinner and tidy the house. A couple of hours later and the house was filled with noise and laughter.

I love seeing our kitchen table packed with people, glasses of wine and steaming dishes of food. Tonight there were 10 of us packed like sardines reaching over each other for helpings of roast chicken, stuffing, baked potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, corn on the cob and lots and lots of thick, rich gravy!

Anne had offered to provide the dessert. She arrived with bags of secretive ingredients and when the savoury food was cleared she set to work creating a masterpiece of puffed pastry, cream and strawberries piled high. It looked so good I didn't want to attack it with a spoon. Well I lasted about 10 seconds and long enough to take one photo before tucking in. There was absolute silence as 10 people closed their eyes and felt the cream and strawberries melt in their mouths.